Day #235:How to get Yourself to do what you don’t want to do.

You have this bad habit you have always wanted to get rid of, that project you’ve left on the back-burner – the one with the deadline that’s growing uncomfortably near. Wait, weren’t you going to try to go to the gym more often this year? Or let’s say something you have always wanted to change or do. Yet, you can’t bring yourself to make that change happen. This is not about procrastination, it’s more about the will to change that thing or bring yourself to do that thing.

You are waiting for that one thing ,that extreme situation or that someone who would just push you, give you ‘the kick’. So you can get out of that rot.In the book, The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari, the lawyer Julian, had to wait till the heart attack before he got the wake up call to change his life and get his life under control. Your’s may not be that extreme.

The question is, what if the kick never comes? What are you going to do?

The key is to get leverage on yourself.

There are two ways to look at any task. You can do something because you see it as a way to end up better off than you are now – as an achievement or accomplishment. As in, if I complete this project successfully I will impress my boss, or if I work out regularly I will look amazing or you can think of it as something you have to lose. Something like, ‘if I don’t get this done, I will get fired.

Whenever you find yourself not getting enough motivation to change something or do something you have always wanted to do, think of what you stand to gain by doing it or what you stand to lose by not doing it.